The announcement from the New York-based company came yesterday at its Springfield Operations Center as part of a demonstration and tour of the facility that now has more than $5 million in new broadband equipment, according to a news release. The upgrades complete the company’s Missouri investments as part of project Open Road.

The network upgrade centered in the Queen City will bring 1 GB internet speeds to residents and businesses in Springfield and Greene County, among other local communities such as Marshfield, Cassville and Ava, said Mediacom’s Area Operations Director Steve Bennett.

As of its announcement, 13 new customers had signed up for the service, Bennett said, which is able to download a billion bits of data per second. Pricing starts at $139.95.

Springfield was the 1,000th community in the nation to take on the new service, and Springfield Mayor Ken McClure was on hand to issue a congratulatory proclamation for becoming a gigabit city.

“Springfield residents, like consumers elsewhere, rely on more connected-devices and have seen their internet data consumption grow by as much as 35 to 50 percent per year,” the proclamation reads.

Mediacom is the fifth largest cable operator in America serving more than 1.3 million customers in smaller markets across the Midwest and southeast, according to the release.